Let's first understand a very important pathway in the body →AMPK pathway (AMP- activated protein kinase).
→ What is AMPK?
Simple and popular understanding, this is a kind of protease, which has a great relationship with weight loss, longevity and health. Simply put:
When AMPK is suppressed, people will become obese and unhealthy.
When AMPK is activated, we will become healthier and slimmer.
We can activate AMPK in many ways, such as fasting, low carbon and exercise. These are all ways to activate AMPK, and some drugs can also have this effect.
As a hypoglycemic agent, metformin can also activate AMPK. After AMPK is activated with metformin, the level of cancer marker 5-hmC can be increased.
→ What is 5hmC?
This is a very important sign of epigenetics, briefly introduce:
When 5-hmC in DNA is reduced, it means that cancer is getting worse.
Deletion of 5hmC as a cancer biomarker
This study found that hyperglycemia can lead to the decrease of 5-hmC, which greatly increases the risk of cancer.
Hyperglycemia can inhibit the activity of AMPK protease, which leads to the phosphorylation of TET2Ser99 and the decrease of the stability of TET2 protein, and reduces the ability of TET2 protein to catalyze the production of 5-hmC. When 5-HMC decreases, it means that the possibility of tumor occurrence will also increase.
In short:
Hyperglycemia → protease inhibition → decrease of TET2 stability by 5hmC → increase of cancer risk.
Hypoglycemia → activation of AMPK → phosphorylation of Tet 2 → improvement of 5hmC→ reduction of cancer risk.
This principle tells us that another very important factor of cancer → hyperglycemia:
It is very important to prevent cancer, eat less rice flour sugar and stabilize blood sugar.